The Download: AI-generated lawsuits and virtual power plants for data centers

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The Download: AI-generated lawsuits and virtual power plants for data centers

每日下载：AI 生成的诉讼与数据中心的虚拟电厂

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. 这是我们工作日时事通讯《每日下载》的今日内容，为您提供每日科技界动态。

How courts are coping with a flood of AI-generated lawsuits

法院如何应对 AI 生成的诉讼浪潮

Most days in her chambers, Judge Maritza Braswell, a federal magistrate judge in Colorado, sifts through stacks of documents written by people without a lawyer. The number of these filings has more than doubled compared to before 2023. She puts that jump down to AI. But while AI appears to be expanding access to justice, it doesn’t seem to be improving people’s chances of winning. Judges are starting to question what rights and duties chatbots should have as they stand in for lawyers. Lawmakers, meanwhile, are grappling with who should pay the price when chatbots produce bad legal advice. Read the full story on how AI is reshaping access to the law. —Michelle Kim 在科罗拉多州担任联邦治安法官的 Maritza Braswell，大部分时间都在办公室里审阅由非律师人士撰写的堆积如山的文件。与 2023 年之前相比，这类诉讼文件的数量翻了一番多。她将这一激增归因于 AI。虽然 AI 似乎扩大了人们获得司法救济的途径，但它似乎并没有提高人们胜诉的几率。法官们开始质疑，当聊天机器人代替律师时，它们应该拥有哪些权利和义务。与此同时，立法者们也在纠结，当聊天机器人提供糟糕的法律建议时，谁该为此买单。阅读关于 AI 如何重塑法律获取途径的完整报道。——Michelle Kim

How virtual power plants could provide energy for data centers

虚拟电厂如何为数据中心提供能源

Would you take a payment to ramp down your electricity use? Would it change anything if you were doing so to help power a local data center? A new project backed by Google will put those questions to the test. The company has signed a deal to fund a virtual power plant in the largest power grid in the US. The system will group together devices like electric vehicles and smart thermostats, paying customers to adjust their usage when the grid is stretched. The project could free up capacity for Google’s data centers—but there’s a catch: people might not play along. Find out what the future holds for these virtual power plants. —Casey Crownhart 你愿意接受一笔报酬来减少用电量吗？如果这样做是为了帮助当地的数据中心供电，你会改变主意吗？一个由谷歌支持的新项目将对这些问题进行测试。该公司已签署协议，资助美国最大电网中的一个虚拟电厂。该系统将整合电动汽车和智能恒温器等设备，在电网负荷过重时，向调整用电量的客户支付费用。该项目可以为谷歌的数据中心腾出电力容量，但有一个问题：人们可能并不愿意配合。了解这些虚拟电厂的未来前景。——Casey Crownhart

This story is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things climate. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday. 本文摘自我们的每周时事通讯《The Spark》，为您提供气候领域的一切内幕。每周三订阅即可在收件箱中接收。

The must-reads

必读内容

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 我已梳理了互联网，为您找出今天最有趣、最重要、最可怕及最引人入胜的科技故事。

  1. The EU has proposed new legislation to end its Big Tech dependence 欧盟提出新立法以终结对大型科技公司的依赖

    • The laws aim to boost domestic cloud, AI and semiconductors. (CNBC)
    • 该法律旨在促进本土云、AI 和半导体产业的发展。（CNBC）
    • US firms would be blocked from critical public tenders. (Reuters)
    • 美国公司将被禁止参与关键的公共招标。（路透社）
    • It also wants to make sure non-EU actors cannot disrupt tech services with a “kill switch.” (The Guardian)
    • 欧盟还希望确保非欧盟参与者无法通过“终止开关”破坏技术服务。（卫报）
    • But the proposal needs to be negotiated with EU member states. (Politico)
    • 但该提案仍需与欧盟成员国进行协商。（Politico）

  2. Intelligence agencies warn Chinese spies are recruiting on LinkedIn 情报机构警告中国间谍正在 LinkedIn 上进行招募

    • The Five Eyes alliance said Beijing is using job platforms for espionage. (BBC)
    • “五眼联盟”称北京正在利用招聘平台进行间谍活动。（BBC）
    • The spies are allegedly recruiting government and military staff. (Politico)
    • 据称，这些间谍正在招募政府和军事人员。（Politico）
    • The Chinese embassy in the UK condemned the accusations. (彭博社)
    • 中国驻英国大使馆谴责了这些指控。（彭博社）
    • Meet the man hunting the spies in your smartphone. (MIT Technology Review)
    • 见见那位在你的智能手机里搜寻间谍的人。（麻省理工科技评论）

  3. AI CEOs have called for a law protecting against biological weapons AI 公司首席执行官呼吁制定法律以防范生物武器

    • They warn that synthetic DNA could be used for bioweapons. (Wired)
    • 他们警告称，合成 DNA 可能被用于制造生物武器。（连线）
    • Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Demis Hassabis joined the call. (WSJ)
    • Sam Altman、Dario Amodei 和 Demis Hassabis 加入了这一呼吁。（华尔街日报）
    • No one’s sure if synthetic mirror life will kill us all. (MIT Technology Review)
    • 没人确定合成镜像生命是否会毁灭人类。（麻省理工科技评论）

  4. Firms are using Reddit to manipulate ChatGPT and Google AI search 企业正在利用 Reddit 操纵 ChatGPT 和谷歌 AI 搜索

    • They’re spamming subreddits to get posts scraped by chatbots. (404 Media)
    • 他们正在向子版块发送垃圾信息，以便让聊天机器人抓取这些帖子。（404 Media）
    • What we’ve been getting wrong about AI’s truth crisis. (MIT Technology Review)
    • 我们在 AI 真相危机上犯了哪些错误。（麻省理工科技评论）

  5. Meta keeps delaying the launch of its new AI model Meta 不断推迟其新 AI 模型的发布

    • The new Muse Spark AI model API still has no release date. (WSJ)
    • 新的 Muse Spark AI 模型 API 仍未确定发布日期。（华尔街日报）
    • Which is hampering Meta’s plans to monetize its AI investments. (Reuters)
    • 这阻碍了 Meta 将其 AI 投资货币化的计划。（路透社）

  6. For the first time, a US city has voted to permanently ban data centers 美国城市首次投票永久禁止数据中心

    • Monterey Park, California, voted in favor of the move. (LA Times)
    • 加利福尼亚州蒙特利公园市投票支持这一举措。（洛杉矶时报）
    • Should we be moving data centers to space? (MIT Technology Review)
    • 我们应该把数据中心搬到太空吗？（麻省理工科技评论）

  7. China is betting on household chore training to advance robotics 中国押注家务训练以推动机器人技术发展

    • Data harvested in homes and factories provides a scaling edge. (Rest of World)
    • 在家庭和工厂中采集的数据提供了规模化优势。（Rest of World）
    • Gig workers are training humanoids at home. (MIT Technology Review)
    • 零工经济从业者正在家中训练人形机器人。（麻省理工科技评论）

  8. Sam Altman will urge US lawmakers not to require AI model approvals Sam Altman 将敦促美国立法者不要强制要求 AI 模型审批

    • He’s advocating against proposals for new AI rules. (Reuters)
    • 他正在游说反对新的 AI 规则提案。（路透社）
    • His move comes after President Trump signed a new AI order. (Wired)
    • 此举发生在美国总统特朗普签署新的 AI 行政令之后。（连线）

  9. Quantinuum raised $1.68 billion in an IPO as quantum computing rises 随着量子计算兴起，Quantinuum 在 IPO 中筹集了 16.8 亿美元

    • Investors flocked to one of the fast-growing sector’s leaders. (Reuters)
    • 投资者蜂拥至该快速增长领域的领军企业之一。（路透社）

  10. Someone finally wants to hire philosophers: Silicon Valley 终于有人想雇佣哲学家了：硅谷

    • Big tech hopes they will help build better machines. (The Atlantic)
    • 大型科技公司希望他们能帮助制造更好的机器。（大西洋月刊）

Quote of the day

今日名言

“Historically, these companies have been very willing to play Russian roulette—and they’re playing another round.” “从历史上看，这些公司一直非常乐意玩俄罗斯轮盘赌——而现在，他们正在进行新一轮的博弈。”

—Connor Leahy, an AI researcher, former hacker and US director of ControlAI, tells the Financial Times why he’s concerned about Anthropic’s relentless race to the top. ——AI 研究员、前黑客、ControlAI 美国区负责人 Connor Leahy 向《金融时报》解释了他为何对 Anthropic 永无止境的登顶竞赛感到担忧。

One More Thing

额外内容

What an octopus’s mind can teach us about AI’s ultimate mystery 章鱼的思维能教会我们关于 AI 终极奥秘的什么？

Emily Bender, a linguist at the University of Washington, has developed a thought experiment she calls the octopus test. It involves an octopus learning to copy patterns in human writing and produce squiggles in response. But does the animal actually understand the language or are we merely projecting meaning onto it? Bender’s octopus is a stand-in for AI systems like ChatGPT. The intelligence we see in these machines is also projected on them by us. The same applies to consciousness: we may claim to see it, but it remains unclear whether it is really there. Read the full story on the debate over machines with minds. —Will Douglas Heaven 华盛顿大学的语言学家 Emily Bender 设计了一个她称之为“章鱼测试”的思想实验。实验中，一只章鱼学习模仿人类书写的模式，并以此产生乱码作为回应。但这种动物真的理解语言吗？还是我们仅仅将意义投射到了它身上？Bender 的章鱼是 ChatGPT 等 AI 系统的替身。我们在这些机器中看到的智能，也是我们投射给它们的。意识也是如此：我们可能声称看到了它，但它是否真的存在仍不清楚。阅读关于机器思维辩论的完整报道。——Will Douglas Heaven

We can still have nice things

我们依然可以拥有美好事物

A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. 一个为您带来舒适、乐趣和放松，点亮您一天的地方。

  • Discover where iconic sound effects actually came from in this fabulous audio history.
  • 在这段精彩的音频历史中，探索标志性音效的真正来源。
  • Need a serotonin boost? Then tune into this live puppy cam from Denali National Park.
  • 需要多巴胺补充？那就收看来自迪纳利国家公园的小狗直播摄像头吧。
  • Linux lovers can try 570 extinct operating systems at a new virtual museum.
  • Linux 爱好者可以在一个新的虚拟博物馆中尝试 570 种已绝迹的操作系统。
  • Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” becomes something entirely different in this lightning-fast bass guitar performance.
  • 在这段闪电般的贝斯吉他演奏中，贝多芬的《月光奏鸣曲》呈现出完全不同的风貌。
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